Erol Akyavas

Akyavaş was born in İstanbul in 1932. Akyavaş was a guest student at the Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu Studio at the İstanbul Academy of Fine Arts from 1950 to 1952. He then travelled to Florence and Paris where he enrolled at the Fernand Léger and André Lhote studios and joined the Cercle et Carré group. Akyavaş travelled to the US in 1954 to study architecture under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology and worked with the architect Eero Saarinen from 1960 to 1962. He settled in New York in 1967 and later shared his time between New York and İstanbul. Akyavaş had solo exhibitions around the world since 1950s: Cleveland and New York in the U.S.; Rome, Milan and Turin in Italy; Bremen, Stuttgart, Cologne in Germany; Bern and Zurich in Switzerland; Nicosia, Cyprus; Paris, France; as well as at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg in Russia. His works were also included in various group shows such as “New Acquisitions” at the Museum of Modern Art (1962), “Paintings from the Museum of Modern Art” at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (1963), “Turkish Artists in New York” in New York (1970), 1st and 2nd İstanbul Biennials (1987,1989), “Parİstanbul” at the international Art Centre in Paris (1990). Even before studying architecture in Illinois, Akyavaş’ art strongly reflected his interest in this field, as he produced a series of abstract paintings referencing Islam, Sufism, miniatures and calligraphy. His works can be found in various prestigious institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Berlin and Stuttgart Art Museums as well as in numerous local and international private collections. Akyavaş passed away in Amerika in 1999. (biyografi.net)